Posted 4 years ago on Feb. 26, 2012, 3:25 p.m. EST by francismjenkins
(3713)
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This short lived but remarkable experiment in human history is pertinent in light of the renewed interest in anarchist thought (particularly among many OWS supporters). Some of the greatest minds of the time were drawn to Spain during this period, including George Orwell and Ernest Hemingway. Anyway, here's a few videos & hopefully we can glean some important lessons.

Obviously, as the last video suggests, fighting fire with fire isn't a very good idea, when the other guy has bombers and you don't. So peaceful protest, like Dr. King and Gandhi, yet we're inspired by stories like that of Mohamed Bouazizi, who set himself on fire in Tunisia (leading to the revolt that finally brought some semblance of freedom to that country).

Spanish anarchists were the first to fight against Hitler's developing war machine, yet they're often ignored by our history books. We should memorialize their sacrifice not with statutes, but with peaceful action in the spirit of what they fought for.

14 Comments

Thanks for posting, a lot of people see the Spanish Civil war as the defining political event(s) of the 20th century, yet it is the most ignored event in history textbooks (at least American ones). And if it is mentioned, there certainly will be no talk of the revolution in Barcelona.

Well, I posted this because very few know about this factoid from history (unfortunately). Not many people realize that anarchists were the first to experience Hitler's war machine, and try as they did to fight against it (albeit, to a tragic end). But yes indeed, "people" movements do share commonality (and now that you mention it ... that's another lesson we can glean from this history) :)

Uh, Spanish anarchists were responsible in part for the ultimate defeat of the Republican forces. They couldn't resist attacking their filthy Marxist allies.
Even in the face of certain doom ( fighting Franco, German and Italian forces.) they ad to fuck with their own side.

Stalin's puppets in the Spanish communist party were the ones that were aggressive against the anarchists and socialists (and I use those terms for distinction only as know well the number of parties and their differences). The CNT, POUM, etc would not have "fucked with their own side" had the Stalinists not attempted (and subsequently succeeded) to liquidate them. People were being jailed and executed simply for being affiliated with various political parties (in fact, the Stalinist police forces wouldn't even obey orders from the Republican government trying to halt this purge). Would you not fight back against that? It was the PCE and PSUC that were responsible for the ultimate defeat of the Republic, not the anarchists or marxists.

During the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939, although the anarchists and Marxists both fought in a united front against the fascist movement of General Francisco Franco, the revolutionary Marxists of the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM), the anarcho-syndicalists of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT), and the anarchists of the Federación Anarquista Ibérica (FAI) faced repression and attacks from the Communist party.